


Car Wash

by juiceyourheadlikealemon



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Banshee Lydia Martin, Canon Compliant, F/M, Feelings, Fluff, Romance, Roscoe is a kick ass car, Stiles Stilinski's Jeep's Name is Roscoe, Werewolves, four times + one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 19:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18198356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juiceyourheadlikealemon/pseuds/juiceyourheadlikealemon
Summary: The first time Lydia helps (though she would use this term loosely) Stiles to wash his car, it's mainly her fault.She rolls her eyes as they reach his locker, leaning against the door of the one next to his and stifling the beginning of a yawn. It's not that she doesn't care, it's just that, well, she doesn't care for cars.// Or the four times Lydia helps wash Stiles' car and the one time she doesn't.





	Car Wash

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been an unfinished word doc on my computer for the past goodness knows how long and so I finally (sorta) got round to finishing it. It was originally supposed to be a 5 plus 1 but I reached the last part and it just felt right to leave it there so that's what we've got. It's super fluffy and cheesy but these kids need some fluff & cheese in their lives... right?!
> 
> Anyways, without further ado, here it is.  
> Unbeta'ed as ever so apologies for any mistakes.

#1

The first time Lydia helps (though she would use this term loosely) Stiles to wash his car, it's mainly her fault.

"...and that is why Roscoe is a kick ass car."

She rolls her eyes as they reach his locker, leaning against the door of the one next to his and stifling the beginning of a yawn. It's not that she doesn't care, it's just that, well, she doesn't care for cars.

"Especially cars that have stupid names." She accidentally says out loud.

Damn the faeries that kept them up late last night, damn her lack of sleep and damn her loose tongue. She shoots a look at Stiles who, in the past few seconds, has gone from extremely cheerful to looking like he may have had a heart attack.

"What did you say?" He manages to croak out, one hand still rummaging around in his locker but everything else fixed on her.

"Nothing…" She tries to smile sweetly but even she knows it looks more like a grimace. "Look Stiles, I'm sorry but you know how I feel about that piece of junk."

"That piece of junk has saved your life many a time!" Stiles gives her a pointed look as he finally finds whatever he was looking for and slams his locker, beginning the walk down the hallway with Lydia trailing behind him. She almost bumps into him as he stops abruptly outside the school doors and gestures towards the parking lot to where, she rolls her eyes again, his _really filthy_ jeep sits.

"Look at that beauty."

"That beauty," Lydia says, without missing a beat, "needs a wash."

"I know." Stiles grins and Lydia knows that whatever is going to come out of his mouth next isn't going to please her one little bit, "and you're going to help me!"

She tries to protest, really she does, as he grabs her hand and pulls her towards the jeep (she'll never call it Roscoe, ever) but her heart's really not that into it.

‘Get it together,’ she hisses at herself (in her head this time, thank goodness), before he lets go to open the passenger door for her. She slides in whilst he scrambles over and gets into the driver's side.

"Fine." She mutters, knowing that she owes him one really after insulting one of the few remaining things he has left of his mother, "I'll help you wash it."

He nods, glancing over at her, fingers tapping away to some invisible song on the steering wheel as they drive in silence to his house.

"Thanks Lyds." He adds as they both go to move out the car, she shrugs in return but smiles to herself once he's turned away, knowing she's forgiven.

She admits to herself later once they're both soaked to the bone but with one very shiny looking vehicle that actually washing Stiles' car isn't that much of a chore and, if she’s being completely honest, she actually quite enjoyed it.

_______

#2

The second time Lydia helps Stiles to wash his car, it's more of a distraction technique than it is a clean as such.

It's an average Wednesday night, the plan being to head back to Stiles' to study both schoolwork and also the bestiary to see if there's any answers to whatever the Nemeton has drawn to Beacon Hills for what feels like the thousandth time in their lives.

"I just don't understand," she sighs, closing her eyes for a moment as she leans back against the headrest, "why couldn't they have waited until after midterms. I mean, don't they know we have exams?"

She glances over to see Stiles looking back at her with a grin stretched across his face.

"They're some kind of demon Lyds, I doubt they even know what an exam is, let alone have them. You shouldn't let this bother you anyway, you'd pass those tests with your eyes closed and distractions coming from all angles."

She's glad he's looking back at the road, she decides, otherwise she might have kissed him there and then and that would have definitely led to an accident. How is it he always knew what to say to make her feel better?

She sighs, "I know. I know."

As they pull into his driveway, his face lights up and she knows that look, so much so that she's almost afraid to ask what the reason is behind it.

"Stiles?"

He turns to look at her as he puts the vehicle into park.

"I know just what to do to take your mind off things for a while. Wait here!"

She doesn't get chance to ask anything else as he leaps out the car and through the side door into his garage where she hears rummaging and then a tap being turned on. He returns minutes later with two buckets and two sponges at which she twigs exactly what he wants to do. She opens her door and hops down, walking over to him and grabbing a bucket.

"It says a lot," she mutters, as she gets to work scrubbing the passenger window, "about the state of our lives when we find cleaning cars the most enjoyable part of them."

She's not sure if Stiles hears or if he chooses to ignore her, but she receives no reply back. The next morning, after her and Stiles have figured out that it's a water demon that's being carrying out all the attacks and she's had a decent night's sleep, the first one she's had in ages (though she won’t admit it’s because Stiles was actually there with her), that she decides car washing is actually good for the soul.

_______

#3

The third time Lydia helps Stiles to wash his car, it doesn't really count as washing to say the least, it's more a throwing of sponges with the jeep caught in the middle.

She'd been snapping at him all day with one thing or another because she was tired (yet again) and he was being his usual annoying self (yet again) and it was so easy to take it out on him because he was just, well, there. It was only at lunch did she realise the full extent of her grouchiness. After muttering something about how salad did not involve pasta in a way that really should not have been that aggressive, she notices all their friends staring at her wordlessly. Stiles, for his part, stays very quiet, placing down his fork and getting out his history homework instead. She earns an eye roll (which is her move, thank you very much) from Malia and an eyebrow raise from Kira before they disappear off to the library. Liam, Mason and Hayden had avoided their normal table like the plague - someone must have warned them in advance about her mood - and Scott, bless his soul, asks if everything is alright when she growls, yes she realises the irony, in his direction.

"Sorry." She mutters, placing her head in her hands on the table, "I'm just, I mean, I think my powers are changing and I don't know how to control them and we've got schoolwork that I've not actually done like four weeks in advance and for what feels like the first time in ages there's nothing wanting to kill us and I didn't want to bother any of you and I just..."

At this point, which she will consistently deny happened to anyone ever, she bursts into actual tears.

"Whoa." She hears a mutter from across the table and then a, "shit," from the other boy who she's been taking it all out on. She sits up suddenly almost head butting Stiles who's moved round to sit next to her.

"Sorry." She hiccups whilst trying to wipe her eyes and stop crying which, she notes, is really not working right now, "sorry for taking it all out on you. It's just you were the first person there this morning and you were being so... so… nice!"

"Lydia." He swallows, as she hiccups again, the tears stopping slightly as she pulls herself together, glaring at anyone else in the courtyard who thought it wise to make eye contact with her, "I think you need to eat something."

She shakes her head as he pushes his 'salad' in her direction, just as her stomach rumbles in response.

"No really I'm fine, I just..."

"Lydia. Eat." This time from Scott whose eyebrows are drawn together, "Stiles is going to take you back to his to chill whilst the rest of us try to figure this out."

She nods, too drained to argue as she inhales the rest of Stiles' lunch, mouthing a 'thank you' at Scott around her food as he disappears, before being yanked up and pulled along to the jeep. 

"You could've just told me you know," Stiles says as he begins driving, "that is what we do, take care of each other and ok so it may not be a big threat to our lives but it may change the course of things and..."

She tunes him out as he begins his rambling, his tone beginning to lull her into a sleepy doze just as he pulls up to his house. She startles and looks over to where he's sitting, a gleam in his eye.

"What?" She asks, but he just shakes his head and tells her to dump her stuff in his room and then come back and meet him on the driveway. She sighs but complies because he's Stiles and she's Lydia and that’s that.

She comes back out to find Stiles standing in the driveway with buckets full of water and sponges. She frowns (I mean really, the damn car needs washing again?) only to find that the first thing to get wet isn't the car. She turns to face Stiles, her mouth open ready to berate him when he shrugs, casually like nothing has happened, and throws another sponge straight at her forehead. She blinks, frowning, as water runs down her face, raising her hands up to wipe it away before turning and grabbing a sponge of her own, furious that she hadn't thrown one at him first.

"You. Are. So. Dead." She grounds out, giving chase and fighting back.

Three hours, and lots of water later, the rest of the pack find them lying on Stiles' front lawn surrounded by sponges.

"Car washing," she manages to wheeze out around her laughter, as their friends ask them what the hell happened, "is really good for bad moods."

And helping her with her powers too, she thinks, but she'll save telling them that until later when they're being serious again.

_______

#4

The fourth time Lydia helps Stiles to wash his car is right before senior prom and she's never seen him as speechless as he is when she's just asked him to the dance.

They'd gone back to his yet again, though this time luckily without the threat of anything supernatural hanging over their heads, just the whole kiss thing and the _I love yous_ and the fact that she had realised that everything had changed, and he'd been mumbling about various things until she'd had enough of the butterflies in her stomach and, like word vomit, had just blurted out,

"Stiles, do you want to come to the dance with me? It's just that I was going to go with Malia but now she's going with some guy in the year below, and Scott and Kira are going together, and Liam and Hayden, and Mason and Corey, and so now there's just me and yeah.."

She trails off and looks up to where he's standing near his crime board (hardly any red on it for once, she manages to note somewhere in the back of her mind), frozen in shock and just staring at her. It suddenly occurs to her that she's left it really late and maybe he's found someone else.

"Never mind," She stands up, plastering a smile on her face, "It doesn't matter. I mean who leaves it until the afternoon before to ask someone, that's just crazy."

She's opening his front door before she hears a noise from behind her and then there he is, flailing limbs and all, slamming it closed.

"Lydia.' He states, very clearly. She can see his eyes roaming her face, looking for something though she's not quite sure exactly what, "did you just seriously ask me to prom or did I have one of those moments where I blacked out and thought one of my fantasies was actually coming true again?"

She grins, waiting for him to catch on to what he's just said. Her smile widens as the blush begins to rise up his neck and into his cheeks, "Oh shit. I mean, well I did mean what I said, it's just that you don't need to know what I fantasise about 'cause that's just weird and oh man, I don't... I mean, I can't..."

"Stiles." She cuts him off, still smiling, before he does something like work himself up into a panic attack, "I did ask."

"Oh. Ok. Well then yes, I would like to go with you, Lydia Martin. I was only going to be third wheeling Scott and Kira anyways."

They both grin at each other for a second, before she suddenly realises that it is actually 3 in the afternoon and the dance starts in four hours.

"Right well I'll text you with what I'm wearing, please tell me you have something that at least resembles a suit." He nods, "and I guess we'll have to go in..." she stops as she pulls the door open and glances at his jeep.

"We are not going in anything but Roscoe." Stiles states, all matter of fact, from next to her, "at least let me get some of my manly pride back from not being the one to ask you and pick you up and drive."

She snorts, and raises her eyebrow.

"Manly pride?"

"Yes." He's nodding vigorously now, back to his usual self, "I'm gonna give him a wash first so he'll be all clean before I pick you up."

He brushes past her to find the water hose and whatever else he needs and she sighs.

"Fine." She calls, as he comes back into view, "I'll help."

_Why_ , she thinks, as she pulls her hair back into a bun on the top of her head, _does it always come back to the damn car?_

"Lydia." He's standing next to her, sponge in hand, "that's nice and all, but don't you have a dance to get ready for? Don't you need to go out and buy a dress and get your hair done or something?"

He's giving her an out, she realises, as she rolls her eyes and sticks her hand out for the sponge.

"Stiles, you're forgetting that I'm Lydia Martin. I could probably get ready in less time than it takes to clean Roscoe."

She realises what she's said as soon as it's out her mouth, "It's just, I mean, its senior prom, and after everything we've been through I don't really care what we look like, except presentable, and I just want to be there with you and have a good time."

He's grinning now, like full on grinning at her, and she doesn't know whether to grin back or not after what she’s just admitted out loud.

"You called him Roscoe." _Really,_ she thinks,  _out of everything that's what he picked up on_. "You do like the jeep."

"Yeah, yeah," she mutters, poking him in the side, "come on Stilinski, we've got work to do."

He's still grinning as he goes to get his own sponge, and begins wiping down the windscreen, "For what it's worth Lyds, I just want to be there with you and have a good time too."

She rolls her eyes at him in response, but can't seem to fight her own smile that's taking over her face as she gets to work. She ends up cleaning a little more roughly and gets in Stiles' way a lot more than usual but even she has to admit that the three of them (yes, _thank you Stiles_ , jeep included) do look great when they roll up to the dance later that evening.

_______

#5

The fifth time Stiles gets out the car washing equipment; Lydia has had just about enough.

They've been skirting around whatever they are and the various make out sessions they've been having for weeks and it's driving her crazy. Ok, so they're going to college, but does that matter? They'd been through worse with the Hunt. She’s even begun making a list in her head every time she gets frustrated with the situation, just so she has something to calm her down - which is exactly what she is doing on a Friday evening in Stiles’ driveway as she watches him root round his garage trying to find extra sponges.

"…panic attacks, ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, the hunt, being forgotten…" She keeps repeating over and over so she doesn’t scream, and not in the Banshee type of way.

"Lydia, do you think you could help? I’m sure there’s at least another two, maybe three, in here but I’m not sure where my Dad has put them…"

She sighs, thinking that the Sheriff himself had probably hid them, likely as fed up with the amount of car washing (and his increased water bill) as much as she is by now.

"No." She doesn’t realise she’s said it until it’s out of her mouth.

"What?" Stiles’ head pops up from whatever box it’s been rummaging in and stares at her, "I mean, did you just say… I don’t…"

"I don’t want to wash your damn jeep, Stiles." She may as well get it all out, she decides, her eyes flicking to the ceiling for a moment in a silent prayer for help. Now that she’s started, she should just finish it. "No offence, but I can think of plenty of other things I’d rather be doing with my time."

He stands up from where he’s been crouching and starts to walk over to her, leaving the buckets and sponges where they are. She bites her lip, a very un-Lydia like thing to do she notes, but then this is the effect he has on her now; nervous for no apparent reason even though she knows exactly what his reaction will be.

"I just..."

And then he’s there, standing in front of her, understanding and nodding and smiling and kissing her, and that’s when she knows that they’ll be alright. That she has Stiles, no matter what, for as long as she’ll have him and deep down she knows that actually, that’s for life.

______

FIN.


End file.
